In the last several years Americans have been threatened with potential chemical and biological attacks. Airborne toxic agents such as nerve gas, mustard gas, serin, cyanide, etc.) dispersed biohazard aerosol compounds (such as anthrax, smallpox, polio, bacteria, viruses, or fungi), or other atmospheric toxins, are now a real threat to the average citizen.
After the Sep. 11, 2001, disaster, it became popular to purchase plastic sheets and duct tape as a potential safeguard against the dangerous airborne toxins that would come with such attacks. The time frame between the attacks and possible contagion has been estimated to be as low as 15-20 minutes. However, using duct tape and plastic sheets would not offer a quick solution to preventing contagions since using duct tape and plastic sheets could take most of and potentially more than the time it takes for contagions to arrive. Still furthermore, plastic sheeting and duct tapes are used to create a wall, and do little to prevent contaminated air from entering in through leaky windows and doors.
Over the years there have been various types of body suits such as HazMat (hazardous material) suits, and diving suits and the like. However, these suits are difficult and time consuming to wear. In addition, these suits are for protecting single persons and not two or more persons at one time.
Various enclosures have been proposed such as bed tents, and the like. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,590,956 and 4,852,598 to Griesenbeck; 5,688,297 to Spengler; and 6,508,850 to Kotliar. However, these enclosures are primarily directed toward protecting a single sleeping person that is in a horizontal position, and would not be useful for creating a livable and useable habitat enclosure. Also, these enclosures would not be able to seal against and be impervious to chemical and biological airborne agents and radioactive particles (from nuclear fallout) that can occur in a terrorism attack.
A larger enclosure is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,666,910 to Burkhart. However, this enclosure would appear to take potentially longer than the 15-20 minute time limit that would occur with an unexpected act of terrorism. This enclosure seems to be a modified version of using sheet plastic and duct tape that would not work. Also, the sheet material in Burkhart does not describe, teach, nor suggest how it would be able to seal against and be impervious to chemical and biological airborne agents and radioactive particles (from nuclear fallout) that can occur in a terrorism attack.
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.